Where the EMS is going: Strategic Plan 2021 – 2024

For the EMS, the process for preparing a new strategic plan started in the autumn of 2019 with the Council reviewing the current mission statement, preparing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and identifying strategic issues that need to be addressed. As a result of these considerations, the following revised mission statement was agreed.

The aim of the European Meteorological Society (EMS) is to promote the advancement of the science, profession and application of meteorology and related sciences within Europe for the benefit of the whole population.

It was also decided that the strategic plan would be based on a set of strategic objectives, with the following being specified for each objective.

• Context and role of the EMS.
• Current activities (i.e. what the EMS does now).
• Development activities (i.e. what the EMS should do that is different or new in the future).

A lot of thought and effort then went into deciding what the strategic objectives should be. In the end, Council agreed on the following four objectives.

• There is a forward-looking, responsive and cooperative European meteorological community that includes professionals from the academic, public and private sectors.
• The activities of Member Societies and Associate Members are promoted and supported to maximize the benefits and outreach of those activities.
• Meteorological information is well understood and considered to the maximum possible extent by users, policy-makers and the public.
• The EMS is an influential and well-run organization with effective governance and use of social platforms/networks, based upon the committed involvement of its membership.

For each of these objectives, specifying the context, role of the EMS and current activities was relatively straightforward. The difficult part was deciding the development activities that took account of the resources available for their implementation. After much deliberation by members of Council and other contributors, sixteen development activities were agreed. In May 2021 the strategic plan for 2021 to 2024 was adopted by Council. The plan can be downloaded here: EMS-Strategic-Plan_2021-2024. It will be presented to the EMS General Assembly on 31 August 2021.

To supplement the strategic plan, the Council has also adopted an implementation plan. For each of the development activities, this plan specifies the priority, responsible group or person, target or success measures, and proposed initial actions. The intention is that the implementation of the development activities will involve volunteers drawn from the Member Societies and Associate Members along with members of Council and its committees.

The implementation of the strategic plan will be co-ordinated by the EMS Vice President, and the Council will monitor progress at least once a year.

It has been a long and arduous process in preparing the strategic plan and the associated implementation plan, but that hard work has clearly specified where the EMS is going in the next few years and how it is going to get there. Thanks go to everyone who has contributed to preparing the plans.

Bob Riddaway, Chair of Strategy Working Group,
former President of the EMS.